My main concern is monetization.
With a PWA the traditional monetization method of selling apps doesn’t work. So, your options will be a subscription or ads.
But, a subscription is too much hustle for small utilities and casual games. And I love apps like Procreate that are paid, without subscription and ad-free.
We're basically there already unfortunately, even for store-distributed software. Apps like Procreate and Pixelmator are a rarity these days.
It definitely doesn't help that the App Store makes charging for new major versions awkward, and that upgrade discounts are basically impossible, but I suspect the main reason is that most developers just make more money from subs than purchases.
As a consumer though, it sucks. Subscriptions are fine if your product has an ongoing cost to you as the developer, for example server or API fees. And I really don't mind JetBrains-style subs, where you can cancel any time and you retain access to the last version you paid for, for as long as it still works on your machine. But, while I appreciate the need for ongoing revenue to continue paying salaries, I am not interested in renting software in perpetuity—that's not a fair deal. Especially when it robs me of the ability to stick with an older version if I prefer it.
How so? Offer to install the pwa and unlock functionality only after the user has paid. How is that different from a paid "app"?
Everything is doable, and I recognize that my comment of “doesn’t work” was exaggerated.
But I don’t think small apps will do all that work when it is easier to monetize with ads. A more likely scenario for ad-free utilities will be having umbrella subscriptions a la Netflix (like Apple Arcade).
I’m a web dev, too, and I read many enthusiastic articles about PWAs as the future. (Mostly from Google evangelism, for a good business reason). But, the “old school” guy in me that grown-up loading games in diskettes feels that something is lost and more invasive in that future. (I’m not comparing it with the current App Store experience but with the experience of macOS/Windows/Linux, where you can still manually install app binaries).